More Aid On the Way for Typhoon Haiyan Survivors

As Direct Relief’s first emergency shipment of medicines and supplies arrives in the Philippines tonight, an estimated 650,000 people are still displaced from Typhoon Haiyan. Electricity and communications lines remain down in the worst-affected provinces, making the full extent of destruction and loss of life unclear.

Direct Relief has made its entire $65 million in medical inventory available for the relief effort and has extended an offer of assistance to the Philippines Secretary of Health.

In response to local partners’ requests for antibiotics, wound care supplies, gastro-intestinal medications, and painkillers, Direct Relief, in partnership with the Asia America Initiative, prepared a $2.2 million airlift that is packed and ready for departure tomorrow, destined for health facilities critically-low on supplies.

In addition to sending emergency airlifts directly to the Philippines, Direct Relief has helped equip teams of emergency responders such as Team Rubicon, Access Aid International, and Mammoth Medical Missions as they deploy to the Philippines to provide emergency healthcare services to deal with massive the surge in patients and compromised health infrastructure. These medical response efforts will reach people located on 19 different islands affected by the storm.

In the coming days, Direct Relief staff will be arriving on the ground to further assess health needs and logistics channels that will allow for a rapid scaling up of support that has been generously offered by its medical supply partners.

Click this link to support a delivery of life-saving medical aid for people affected by Typhoon Haiyan.